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Technology Stocks : Africa - The Wireless Frontier -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: waitwatchwander who wrote (176)	3/17/2017 12:32:48 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 180

I call mobile penetration in Africa, "Cheating Death". Let's step back a bit: Telecoms -in the hands of the state- were going to die, or were barely alive in 80s to the early 90s. You had enough telephony for the rich, the police and the government and only in the urban areas. There was a huge repressed demand, the waiting lists of people who could afford, a phone line and needed it. Governments did not have the money nor the political will to serve that demand. Then the African countries woke up for what was happening in the rest of the world. Separating Post Office form Telecommunications and in the 890s came liberalization, Privatization and deregulation. Then GSM hit. The R&D costs already amortized in the developed countries. Vendors were very fast in pursuing the sales to developing countries and quickly establish a footprint there. These vendors who were in cahoots with the state-owned enterprises running fixed line, had to quickly metamorphose into mobile vendors. Some like Alcatel and Siemens were so much wedded to the old style state-owned fixed line enterprises that delayed entry. Ericsson, saw the writing on the wall and moved quickly. From cozy relationships with fixed line operators to be first starter in the mobile, Nokia saw a way to dethrone the fixed line operators. Let's go back to Africa. Mobile was an infrastructure developed for rich developed countries. It was seen in the early stages a rich man phone to be put in BMW Series 7 cars. Technologies developed so fast that people forget they came from. To be able to be deployed in the developing countries, mobile operators had to cut corners. Here is no electric grid. There is the problem of security. Anything that is not bolted down to the foundation is carted away overnight. Mobile sites needed generators running 24/7 and fleets of Diesel tankers supplying the engines. And an army of maintenance crews, repairing, changing oil, changing filters, changing starting batteries, and changing the Diesel engines and putting a new coupled with the generators. That diversion from the business of marketing and selling needs to be given to specialized firms. Let a firm own the trouble and worry about security and Diesel engines while the operator run the mobile business. Voila! The tower company! Someone who landed in Africa in 2005 would say: Wow! I can call my home in the US! This is good. Africans have cheated death. Telecoms were alive. But you cant cheat death forever...

To: waitwatchwander who wrote (176)	4/6/2017 11:56:00 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 180

Vodafone aims to unify Africa divisions If the consolidation happens, it will also allow the companies to share skills across the group’s operations. Vodafone owns 65% of Vodacom, which has operations in Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Vodafone’s other African assets are in Ghana, Ethiopia and Kenya, last-mentioned through a 40% stake in Safaricom. The group is likely to collapse its operations into Vodacom, which is far more advanced and bigger than its sister companies 06 APRIL 2017 - 05:38 AM THABISO MOCHIKO Vodafone will likely consolidate some of its operations in sub-Saharan Africa into a single entity as part of its "single, coordinated Africa strategy". In pursuit of this strategy, the group is likely to collapse its operations into Vodacom, which is far more advanced and bigger that its sister companies. Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said on Wednesday that the group was looking at "improving the cohesion of different operations". Vodafone’s Pan-African strategy, which also includes expansion opportunities, was likely to be driven by Vodacom, given the mobile network operator’s "scale, advancement and competence in technology", Colao said. If the consolidation happens, it will also allow the companies to share skills across the group’s operations. Vodafone owns 65% of Vodacom, which has operations in Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Vodafone’s other African assets are in Ghana, Ethiopia and Kenya, last-mentioned through a 40% stake in Safaricom. Vodafone also has operations in other countries such as Nigeria where it provides technology services to companies. Mergence Investment Managers portfolio manager Peter Takaendesa said a number of international companies had been considering exiting or reducing their exposure to Africa due to tough current economic conditions. "I don’t think there is anything wrong if Vodafone consolidates [its other assets in Africa] into Vodacom as long as the pricing of the transaction is fair and Vodafone keeps its 65% stake in Vodacom. It is the transaction details that will determine whether it is a good deal or not," Takaendesa said. Colao said that Vodafone aimed to maintain control of Vodacom. Farai Mapfinya, chief investment officer at Falcon Crest Asset Managers, said the move would make "great sense … as there is scale and integration, which will benefit both Vodafone and Vodacom". If the consolidation goes through, it is likely that some assets, such as Vodafone Egypt, would be excluded. If that happened, said Mapfinya, Vodafone would want to keep the high-quality assets "ring-fenced to ensure it maintains the sector-relative high rating they have enjoyed in recent times". Colao said that together with Vodacom, Vodafone had been looking at expansion opportunities in the continent over the past seven to eight years, but it had not succeeded. The quality of the businesses was inadequate or potential vendors would withdraw at the last minute, he said. "It is not the lack of intention or opportunities that have prevented us from expanding. It [finding quality assets] has been hard so far," said Colao. Commenting on the recent downgrading of SA’s sovereign debt by S&P Global Ratings, Colao said that Vodafone had a long-term strategy in SA. "We have taken a long-term view on the country, on the people and systems rather than on short-term events. "If anything, the spirit of our discussion [with Vodacom’s executive committee] was not to cut investments," said Colao. Vodacom has been spending more than R10bn a year in expanding and improving its network quality in SA.